If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, you likely noticed how similar Trelane from the former and Q from the latter are with their godlike powers. You may have even come across the book Q-Squared that depicted Trelane is a member of the Q species, although that was never considered officially canon. Well, at least that was the case until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 started airing on the 2025 TV schedule. This is now a piece of established Star Trek lore thanks to the episode “Wedding Bell Blues,” and writer Kirsten Beyer opened up to CinemaBlend about how this big twist with Q and Trelane came to be.
This connectivity was implied when John de Lancie, who’s played the most well-known Q in the Star Trek franchise, voiced the father of Trelane, played by Rhys Darby in Strange New Worlds. Showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Meyers confirmed their identities in an interview with Inverse. However, Beyer, who wrote “Wedding Bell Blues” with David Reed (and co-wrote and executive produced the new podcast Star Trek: Khan), told me this wasn’t planned from the start. In her words:
Not in the sense that from the very beginning, we were like, ‘This is the story we're telling.’ The story we were telling was always the story of Spock and La’an and Chapel and Korby and Pike. That what it was all centered on. That's one of those things that sort of becomes a flourish at the end. I think the story, you could have taken it or left it. They very much wanted to make that connection though, and I said God bless.
“Wedding Bell Blues” saw a disguised Trelane manipulating reality so that Spock was preparing to marry Christine Chapel, his former romantic partner who’s now with Dr. Roger Korby. Only Korby was aware of how things had changed right off the bat, though Spock eventually regained his memories, and from there they teamed up to do the same for Chapel. After Trelane’s childlike scheme was foiled, his father showed up in the form of a glowing green blob to reprimand him.
So now we know for certain that not only Trelane is a Q, but his father is the same Q who appeared across The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Lower Decks and Picard. With this information at hand, as well as how Trelane will chronologically next appear in the Original Series episode “The Squire of Gothos,” I was curious if “Wedding Bell Blues” actually takes place further in the character’s own future, or if both episodes happen sequentially for him, too. Here’s what Kirsten Beyer said when I asked if she could clarify this:
I can’t. I think that's one of those choices that the people who are experiencing the material need to decide for themselves because I think both are absolutely possible. And if one makes your head canon feel better, I'd say go with that one.
That’s fair enough, as there are plenty of other elements in Star Trek mythology where fans have been left to fill in certain gaps with their imagination. Regardless, now we have Q representation in the era of Starfleet icons like Christopher Pike and James T. Kirk. Now we wait to see if any Q will be featured in upcoming Star Trek TV shows like Starfleet Academy.
As for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 3 concluded with a Next Generation-inspired finale highlighting Pike’s relationship with Marie Batel. Season 4, which will have its own puppet episode, is expected to premiere in 2026, and the Paramount+ series has also been renewed for a fifth and final season consisting of six episodes.
